Matt Ryan has officially retired from the NFL. Since being drafted number 3 overall by the Atlanta Falcons in 2008, there has been the great financial crisis, multiple presidents elected, a worldwide pandemic, and most recently the AI landscape rapidly changing things around us. Consider how old you were in 2008 versus how old you are now to put it in perspective. With the nature of the NFL being a turn and burn profession, Matt Ryan’s longevity is incredibly impressive.

Matt Ryan’s 15-year career has netted him borderline consideration for the Hall of Fame. The closest he came to winning a Super Bowl was the infamous 28-3 blown lead to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 51. This has always been a tough mark against Ryan as many forget he won the regular season MVP in 2016 that year. Overall, Ryan engineered a career regular season record of 124-109-1 in 234 games primarily with the Falcons and one season with the Colts. According to Pro Football Reference, Matt Ryan threw for 62,792 yards with 11 seasons being top 10 in the NFL and threw for 381 touchdowns being top 10 in the NFL 8 times.

With the NFL draft just a few short days away, the move to the next quarterback class can make it easy to forget players from the past. With Matt Ryan retiring after having not played in 2023, this is a very quiet retirement on his part. Fantasy gamers will always have fond memories of Roddy White, Julio Jones, Tony Gonzalez, and Devonta Freeman scoring points for their fantasy teams and will always fondly be able to associate Matt Ryan being a part of all that fantasy goodness that the Atlanta Falcons had to offer during his tenure.